


Waiting

by Grinner_H



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 09:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2224632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grinner_H/pseuds/Grinner_H





	Waiting

It's four a.m. 

Haru sits by the fireplace, large brown eyes trained on the clock. She knows she shouldn't do this. Watching it is an exercise in futility; like waiting for the guilty to confess, for the sky to stop being blue. 

But she watches, anyway. 

_The first time,_ Bianchi told her once, emerald eyes filled with kindness and sympathy, _is always the hardest._

It's Haru's six hundredth and twenty-second time. It hasn't gotten any easier. 

She wraps the thin, pale pink fabric of her sweater around her slender frame a little tighter. It's so cold - even in early August. It is _always_ cold when Hibari isn't home. 

Haru forcibly tears her gaze away from the old clock on the wall, tries not to think about death and her husband and her growing belly. 

She looks instead, to the open book resting upon her lap. It is severely dogeared and missing its cover - evidence of the innumerable times she's perused it. She lifts the book and stares at the words, seeking hope in the yellowed pages of this cheesy romance novel, soliciting solace in its happy ending.

An hour passes, and she still does not turn a page. 

\--

Sometimes, she finds herself on her hands and knees; relentlessly scrubbing a spot on the floor that's already clean. 

Haru distantly wonders what _sleep_ is meant to feel like, reckons she's going completely _insane._

\--

"You're doing it again," Kyouko admonishes, eyeing Haru's chewed nails disapprovingly. 

Haru has nothing to offer but a sheepish smile. She's ruined countless manicures this way, but she can't bring herself to stop. 

Kyouko smiles in return, empathically. "You _know_ he's alright." Her grip tightens around Haru's fingers - Haru can't tell if it's a gesture of reassurance or worry. "They don't call him the strongest Guardian for nothing."

Haru nods wordlessly, valiantly tries to mask the rising panic in her gut with a plastic smile. 

\--

The worst of it all, is that not even _Tsuna_ knows. 

He gently pats Haru's shoulder and tells her not to worry too much - it wouldn't be good for the baby. 

Haru notices he mentions nothing of when Hibari will be back, or that he'll be okay. She notices Tsuna doesn't say a thing about Hibari coming back at _all,_ and for the millionth time, she hates him a little more for not making promises he isn't certain he'll keep. 

\--

But it is when she catches herself pacing back and forth in her office like an agitated caged animal - the way she's seen _Gokudera_ do too many times - that Haru realizes how far off the deep end she's gone. 

She sinks into her squeaky desk chair with a frustrated sigh; glaring sullenly at the financial reports atop her rosewood desk, and cursing her own helplessness.

\--

And one day - weeks, maybe months, maybe a goddamn _year_ later - Hibari walks in the front door, wild-eyed and covered in blood that's not his own, _never_ his own. 

Haru throws herself into his arms, getting blood and filth all over her favorite yellow dress and not caring in the least because he's _here_ and he's _home._

_He's home._


End file.
